In the process of shipping an item from one location to another, a protective packaging material is typically placed in the shipping carton or box, to fill any voids and/or to cushion the item during the shipping process. Examples of protective packaging materials are foam “peanuts,” air filled plastic “pillows,” and paper sheet material “converted” into cushioning pads.
A number of machines have been proposed for crumpling or “converting” paper sheet into cushioning pads or “dunnage.” One particularly commercially successful machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,452 for Machines And Methods For Making Cushioning Dunnage Products By Crumpling Paper, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. In dunnage producing machines in general, a roll of paper sheet is rotatably supported on the frame of the machine. The leading end of the paper sheet is fed into the machine, the machine draws the paper sheet into it by rotating the roll of paper (i.e. unrolling the roll), and the machine crumples the paper into dunnage.
The amount of paper which can be utilized is limited due to size and weight considerations. First, since the machine itself carries the roll of paper, the machine must be able to physically accommodate the size of the roll. While it would be desirable to have the machine be able to handle larger rolls of paper to reduce downtime of the machine due to the machine having to be refilled by an operator, a larger roll requires a larger machine to handle the larger physical size of the roll and/or a heavier machine (or a machine with a redesigned base) to avoid tipping of the machine, etc. Second, the rotational moment of inertia of a larger roll of paper creates problems for the machine in drawing the paper off the roll. Once the roll reaches a certain weight (and hence a certain rotational moment of inertia), the force required to draw (unroll) the paper from the roll exceeds the tensile strength of the paper, thus causing the paper to tear.
Dunnage producing machines such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,452 and discussed above, and shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,603,216, include a forming/folding/rolling apparatus to form/fold/roll the paper sheet prior to crumpling, to add thickness/resilience to the finished dunnage product. Such forming/folding/rolling apparatus adds cost and complexity to the dunnage machine.
It is desirable to be able to utilize larger rolls of paper for dunnage machines without suffering from the aforementioned disadvantages of larger rolls.
It is also desirable to be able to eliminate forming/folding apparatus from the dunnage machine.
To that end, the assignee developed the cushioning dunnage producing machine disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/517,658, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. That machine comprises a crumpler, a roll of paper sheet material having a first end at a radially innermost location and a second end at a radially outermost location, the first end fed into the cushioning dunnage producing machine, the crumpler drawing the paper sheet from the roll and crumpling the paper sheet into cushioning dunnage.
It is desirable to equip the dunnage producing machine of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/517,658 with a device for cutting the dunnage into strips of the desired length.